---
title: "Buildkite CI backend"
---

You can use digger with buildkite as a CI backend. Currently this is an EE feature only.
Github is the VCS which is supported with this flow.

### Prerequisites:

- Having a valid digger EE license key. If you don't have a license key please [contact us](https://calendly.com/diggerdev/diggerdemo) to request an EE trial
- A buildkite account and your buildkite CI agent set up to receive jobs.

### Install the digger EE orchestrator:

You need to install the digger EE orchestrator. The installation steps are the same as the steps in [self hosting docker](/ce/self-host/deploy-docker)
with some differences:

- For the docker image you will need to use the ee image: https://github.com/diggerhq/digger/pkgs/container/digger_backend
- You will need to include the license key environment variable to the backend and the cli: `DIGGER_LICENSE_KEY=xxxyyy`
- For buildkite CI configuration you need to specify the following environment variables:

```
DIGGER_CI_BACKEND=buildkite
BUILDKITE_TOKEN=bkua_xxxxxxxxxxx
BUILDKITE_ORG=myorg
BUILDKITE_PIPELINE=my_digger_pipeline
```

Other than that if you follow the steps in the self hosting guide you should end up with the orchestrator up and running
along with a github app successfully installed. The repo you wish to try with digger should be installed onto the orchestrator.

### Install digger cli in your buildkite agent

You will need to install digger cli onto the buildkite agent. To achieve this we can run the following
we need to download the appropriate binary from the releases: https://github.com/diggerhq/digger/releases/tag/vLatest.
For example:

```
curl -L -o digger-ee https://github.com/diggerhq/digger/releases/download/vLatest/digger-ee-cli-{OS}-{ARCH}
chmod +x digger-ee
mv digger-ee /usr/local/bin/digger
```

### Prepare your repo with a digger.yml

You need to prepare a digger.yml to configure your terraform projects. For that refer to our quickstart
guides. For a quick one all you need would be a path to a directory and project name:

```
projects:
  - name: dev
    dir: dev/
```

### Create digger pipeline in your buildkite setup:

Create the buildkite pipeline associating it with your repository, give it a name and a description.
For environment variables you only need to set your digger license key: `DIGGER_LICENSE_KEY=xxxyyy`.
In the steps of the pipeline you just need to add a step to invoke digger as follows:

```
digger run_spec --spec "$DIGGER_SPEC"
```

This will instruct digger to run the "spec" which is composed and sent from the backend. That should be
all you need to set up and try digger!

## Test your setup

In order to test your setup try to create a pull request in your repo. You should see in the backend logs
that a webhook event was received and an initial comment should be triggered in your pull request. Your
buildkite should also trigger and also perform a plan

![](/images/buildkite/buildkite.png)

![](/images/buildkite/github_comment.png)

